Procreation Dilemmas

I read an article in the Guardian that highlighted Germany's problems with a declining birthrate. This problem is hardly new, and is one of the chief causes for Europe's continually aging population, something that will come to a head in about 15 to 20 years and will put an untold strain on the health care system. Previously, one tended to underestimate the scale of the problem in Germany compared to other European countries, what with Italy's birth rate falling to below 1.4 children per couple and that of the Scandinavean countries similarly plummeting. On an off note, this has led to many raised eyebrows in terms of the lack of children from Italy's predominantly Roman Catholic populace, particularly considering that utilizing birth control methods is still officially frowned upon by the church. Could it be that they aren't having sex? Somehow I doubt it.

Anyhow, the article showed that over 30% of German women have not had children, a vast majority by choice. This percentage rises to over 40% if limited to women with a University Education. This is a very startling fact indeed. Imagine half of the women with a Bachelor's Degree not having children! I personally was quite staggered by this. This has caused parliament to engage in a debate looking at ways in which to reverse this trend. One solution put forward has been to try and make men play a larger role in raising children, even going so far as stipulating 3 months leave immediately after the birth of a child for the man to help to care for it. This has caused quite a large bit of controversy, rather unsurprisingly, given that many parts of Germany is still quite traditional, and whilst no longer believing strictly in the chauvinistic view of women as "Kinder, Kirch, Kuche" or "Children, Church and Kitchen", still causes politicians to scoff at a man abandoning a real job to change nappies.

This article was of definite interest given the woes that Singapore has had in trying to encourage couples to have more children, with strategies ranging from public "three or more if you can afford it campaigns", to tax incentives, to the point where the government was almost (but not quite) suggesting that it was a civic duty for individuals to marry and have children. There is even a joke about why you must have three children: one to replace yourself, one to replace your spouse, and one to replace the single people who don't want to get married and have kids! Putting everything into perspective, Singapore's problem isn't quite as actue - it's birthrate lies around 1.8 - though that figure is still below the population replacement level (which is slightly above 2).

I remember that Lee Kuan Yew wrote memorably that one of the chief lessons for the new century was that population levels had to be controlled and that governments would have to learn the lesson of allowing uncontrolled population expansion. Recent evidence from Europe and elsewhere suggests that there reverse is quite true as well - governments have to be equally concerned about the lack of population expansion and they had to take measures to get the affluent newer generation to have children. In others words, population control, whichever way it lies, must be government policy. Nothing personifies this quite like Singapore of course, where the irony of the government's line on procreation - that of "two is enough" - cannot be lost on them whenever they ask for "three if you afford it" in the 21st Century.